1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting apparatus, and more particularly, to a technique with which to clean a nozzle formation surface of a liquid ejecting head.
2. Related Art
In the related art, an ink jet printer that ejects a liquid from a plurality of nozzles which are formed on a nozzle formation surface of a liquid ejecting head to an ejection target medium which is transported such as paper to form an image is known as a type of liquid ejecting apparatus. Such a printer is provided with a cleaning function in many cases so as to maintain the ejection characteristics of the liquid from the nozzle and clean the nozzle formation surface by removing the unnecessary portion of the liquid which is adhered to the nozzle or the nozzle formation surface.
In an example of the configuration of the cleaning function for the nozzle formation surface, the cleaning is performed by using a belt-shaped member which can capture the liquid. In other words, the liquid adhered to the nozzle or the nozzle formation surface is removed and the nozzle formation surface is cleaned by bringing a part of the belt-shaped member (belt member) into contact with the nozzle portion which is formed on the nozzle formation surface of the liquid ejecting head or by bringing a part of the belt-shaped member into contact with a part of the nozzle formation surface (ejection surface) near the nozzle (for example, refer to JP-A-2012-126090).
In many cases, a plurality of nozzles are lined up in one direction to form nozzle columns on the nozzle formation surface. Accordingly, in a configuration in which a part of the belt-shaped member is in contact with a part of the nozzle formation surface for the cleaning, a partial contact portion of the belt-shaped member is configured to be moved across the whole area of the nozzle formation surface in the direction along the nozzle columns so as to clean all of the nozzles. In this case, for example, where the area of the nozzle formation surface which is a cleaning target is approximately the whole area of the nozzle columns, the belt-shaped member, a part of which is moved as a contact portion with respect to the nozzle formation surface, cannot sufficiently capture the liquid adhered across the whole area of the nozzle formation surface only with a partial member area which is the contact portion, and thus there may be a case where the liquid remains on the nozzle formation surface. Therefore, the nozzle formation surface is unlikely to be appropriately cleaned.
Such a situation is not limited to the ink jet printer but is common to most liquid ejecting apparatuses that include a belt-shaped member which is in contact with a nozzle formation surface to clean the nozzle formation surface in a liquid ejecting head which has the nozzle formation surface on which a nozzle is formed to eject a liquid.